COOK WITH SUSAN: Bo Ssam Noodle Bowl

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Bo Ssam Noodle Bowl

Now that I have had the pleasure of experiencing amateur Momofuku Bo Ssam at home, “What do I do with the leftovers”?

Make a Bo Ssam Noodle Bowl, of course. Ginger scallion flavored capellini (you could stop here, it was pretty tasty), topped with kim chee, bo ssam and finished with ssam sauce. This is was a noodle bowl with punch!

This noodle bowl was fantastic. It had all the layers of flavor that the original bo ssam did and came together deliciously well. I think I would make Bo Ssam with all the fixing again just to eat this noodle bowl.

This is what I did…

REHEAT THE MEAT: I had a large palm-full size of pork left that became quite salty as it sat in the fridge. So, I pulled it apart into large chunks and placed it in a small sauce pot and filled the pot with water to almost cover the meat. I brought it to a boil; covered the pot; lowered the heat for about 3 minutes to keep the temperature more even; then turned off the stove and let the meat stand while I cooked the noodles.

NOTE: the meat had so much flavor that as a bonus the water quickly turned into a delicious well balanced liquid that you could simply drizzle over rice or turn into a soup broth for your noodles or make into a or sauce.

COOK THE NOODLES: I chose capellini (angel hair) because it reminds me more of an Asian noodle, but I’m sure any long noodle would work, and I cooked it using the frying pan method great trick for a half pound of pasta or less.